Live Review: Black Coffee @ Coburg Velodrome, Melbourne

Australia is one of the biggest markets for electronic dance music – and the domestic scene offers a full events calendar over summer. But the triumphant return of South African superstar DJ Black Coffee (born Nkosinathi Innocent Maphumulo) here after almost a decade has largely passed by mainstream media. His headlining date in Eora/Sydney sold out, with Naarm/Melbourne not far behind.

Maphumulo is iconic in the African diaspora. And he attracts a diverse and cross-generational audience to the Coburg Velodrome, the atmosphere communal and festive. Crucially, Maphumulo delivers.

Back in 2011 Maphumulo played The Johnston in Fitzroy – the Afriqan Times magazine a sponsor. An Afro-house star in his homeland, he'd already overcome adversity. Indeed, Maphumulo was born during apartheid. Then, in 1990, the teen was celebrating Nelson Mandela's release from prison when a driver struck the crowd, leaving him injured with nerve damage in his arm. But he was determined to DJ. In the 2000s Maphumulo remixed Hugh Masekela and launched the label Soulistic Music to issue successive albums.

Since that underground party in inner-Melbourne, the DJ/producer from Umlazi has emerged as a global phenom. In 2018 he teamed with David Guetta and London singer Delilah Montagu for Drive – still his top song on Spotify. Three years later, Maphumulo aired a blockbuster sixth album, Subconsciously – with guests Cassie, Usher and Pharrell Williams – and made history as the inaugural African act to win a Grammy for "Best Dance/Electronic Album". 

He's also collaborated with Drake, notably contributing to the house-inspired Honestly, Nevermind. (The Canadian rapper may be deemed a culture vulture in US hip-hop circles yet he's consistently raised the profile of diasporic creatives from outside.)

As such, this gamechanging DJ has a sizeable discography to draw on – although he had a fallow year in 2024 release-wise, his last smash The Rapture Pt III alongside &ME. Nonetheless, Maphumulo has been busy playing the circuit. He now has a feted Saturday residency at the glamourous Hï Ibiza – White Lotus' Theo James recently dancing in his booth.

Those who've caught footage of Maphumulo at Hï Ibiza might have expected a similar spectacle at the Coburg Velodrome, rivalling arena productions advanced by trancers like Tiësto or even Claptone's Masquerade. However, the staging at the site relies on its urban topography with minimal audio-visuals. In fact, the main props are mist cannons and, being near Melbourne Airport, occasional low-flying planes. Fortunately, it doesn't matter.

Maphumulo has three support DJs – all homegrown. Bertie hits the decks early evening, the local stalwart newly based in London but back for the summer. Alas, due to a heatwave, punters arrive late and so she plays to a modest gathering. Still, Bertie fulfills a solid set of disco and house grooves, closing with sweaty gospel.

Next is Sophie McAlister who, fresh from Beyond The Valley, switches between soulful and tribal house. She astutely revisits a deep house classic in Blaze's 1997 Lovelee Dae. Especially mellow is Masaki Morii's The Night Is Young (featuring Earl W Green), an extended R&B groove.

DJ JNETT lifts the energy level, the club veteran maximising her hour-long slot and generating some fervour. She pays homage to Chicago's cultural legacy with the late Chuck Roberts' immortal 'sermon' from Rhythm Controll's 1987 My House. The highlight? Her selection of Angie Stone's O'Jays-sampling Wish I Didn't Miss You – a DJ fave in the 2000s.

For an international super-DJ, Maphumulo has an unusually lowkey presence in person – eschewing EDM's flamboyance. He also has his own style of elegant house adjacent to the modish amapiano: Afropolitan. But, no purist live, Maphumulo straddles deep house, big room and pop, much like Detroit's Marc "MK" Kinchen.

Maphumulo's expansive set is simultaneously nostalgic and progressive – the DJ a master of smooth transitions, temporally and technically. An early peak comes with Aretha Franklin's mid-'90s foray into diva house, A Deeper Love (actually a remake of a Clivillés & Cole record). Following JNETT, Maphumulo acknowledges the origins of house with Franky Boissy's 2004 Black Music – its spoken word by Roland Clark.

The DJ favours heavy percussion, but keeps it graceful. He's adept, too, at using acappellas. Maphumulo blends a dubby rendition of Crystal Waters' enduring Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) into another '90s evergreen, Robin S's Show Me Love – Gen Z singing along – before layering Michael Jackson's vocals from Billie Jean over drums. More surprising is his choice of Layo & Bushwacka!'s Love Story, a 2000s tech-house and breakbeat staple.

Maphumulo freely drops commercial tracks – Aussie band RÜFÜS DU SOL's Innerbloom a crowd winner. He spins dual French house classics – Stardust's Music Sounds Better With You and Daft Punk's Romanthony-led One More Time, the latter spliced up with a second acappella courtesy of the King Of Pop, this time off Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'.

Maphumulo's apogee is Swedish House Mafia's euphoric banger with The Weeknd, Moth To A Flame – heart-hands EDM that a traditionalist would spurn but which enthralls at a party in a way it doesn't streamed. He closes with Gloria Gaynor's '70s disco anthem I Will Survive – ironically his most theatrical, and defiant, turn.

Maphumulo's philosophy is radically egalitarian – and universal. Towards the end, local police rock up to observe and, at the back, people tense – but, soon, one starstruck officer is spotted bopping and filming the extravaganza on his phone. Good vibes.